Clean up your WSUS I’ve overhauled WSUS Maintenance Utility and have added some new features which were long overdue. It also includes all the same improvements that the other refactored utilities have. 2020-03-20: Version 20.03.20 Added code contribution from [email protected]. Individual clean-up jobs now run separately. Improved reporting. Made slight improvements to documentation. WSUS Maintenance Utility can also be downloaded from: The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery GitHub See the full documentation available here.

Microsoft is finally retired the old TechNet Gallery - one of the websites where I’ve made my utilities available in the past. So, this is just a heads up that if you get my scripts from there, they will no longer be available in the near future. They will still be available on the Microsoft PowerShell Gallery and on my own GitHub. I’ve been expecting this as over the past few years some functionality of the site has been broken for months on end.

Hi all, In these interesting times I thought I’d create a round-up of some tips and recommendations for those of you who are looking to improve your technology - whatever your situation. It’s a grab bag of various items I’ve been collecting for a while but I hope some of these suggestions are useful to you. I usually write posts geared towards IT professionals but this post is aimed at people from all walks of life working from home with little IT assistance.

Control Internet access with Windows Firewall Internet Access Control Utility is available from: GitHub The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery Please consider supporting my work: Support with a one-time donation using PayPal. Please report any problems via the ‘issues’ tab on GitHub. Thanks -Mike Features and Requirements It requires Windows Firewall to be active. The utility requires at least PowerShell 5.0. This utility has been tested on Windows 11 and Windows 10.

Customisable Windows 10 app removal utility I’ve refactored my old Remove UWP script and renamed it to bring it in line with my recent utility updates. Version 20.03.13 ‘Cool’ Refactored code. Backwards compatible. Added logging. Added config report when ran. Added ASCII banner art when run in the console. Added option to disable the ASCII banner art. Remove Win10 Apps Utility can also be downloaded from: The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery GitHub See the full documentation available here.

Really simple log on/off auditing utility Logon Audit Utility is available from: GitHub The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery Please consider supporting my work: Support with a one-time donation using PayPal. Please report any problems via the ‘issues’ tab on GitHub. Thanks -Mike Features and Requirements The utility should be run on a client machine. It is ideally triggered as a logon/logoff script by Group Policy. Any files that the script needs to access should be accessible from a client device.

Flexible clean up and backup of log files This is a minor update to my Log Manager Utility - there was a switch alias which was conflicting with a variable and preventing the utility from running correctly. The previous command line switch of -LogPath is now -LogsPath. Version 20.03.11 ‘Cow’ The previous command line switch of -LogPath is now -LogsPath. This fixes an issue with a duplicate variable and switch alias preventing utility from running currently.

Flexible clean up and backup of log files I’ve completed a lengthy and much needed overhaul of Log Manager Utility. I’ve added a few new features including one suggested from a user. Please be aware that this new version is not backwards compatible with the previous versions and you will need to reconfigure it before use. 2020-03-09: Version 20.03.06 ‘Fish’ Added custom name for zip file based on user feedback.

Clean up your WSUS I’ve overhauled WSUS Maintenance Utility and have added some new features which were long overdue. It also includes all the same improvements that the other refactored utilities have. 2020-03-05: Version 20.03.03 ‘Burger’ Added SSL option for connecting to the WSUS server. Made the -Port switch optional. If it is not specified the default port is used. If -WsusSsl is specified, the default port for SSL is used.

Office Update Manager for 365/2019 I’ve overhauled Office Update Utility and have improved the reporting. It also includes all the same improvements that the other refactored utilities have. 2020-03-03: Version 20.03.01 ‘Crosshair’ New features: Refactored code. Fully backwards compatible. Added ASCII banner art when run in the console. Added option to disable the ASCII banner art. Config report matches design of Image Factory Utility. Office Update Utility can be downloaded from:

Update 2020-06-13: An update for Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT_KB4564442) has been released. This update fixes the boot loop issue and replaces Johan’s workaround with an officially supported fix. Details on how to install it are on Michael Niehaus' blog post here. and you can download the fix here. I will add installation instructions to the walkthrough here. Hi all, So far I’ve had no success with building and capturing a Windows 10 2004 image with MDT and the 1903 ADK (including WinPE) or the pre-release ADK and WinPE.

Flexible Hyper-V Backup Utility Just a minor update to fix a non-critical issue with the previous version and to bring it in line with the recent update of the Image Factory Utility. 2020-02-28: Version 20.02.28 ‘Artifact’ Fixed e-mail report extra line breaks in Outlook 365, Version 2001. Config report matches design of Image Factory Utility. Improved and simplified code. Hyper-V Backup Utility can be downloaded from: The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery GitHub See the full documentation available here.

Automate Creation of WIM Files I’ve just completed testing the new Image Factory Utility. It’s been completely overhauled and has some small new features added. 2020-02-27: Version 20.02.24 ‘Robot’ New features: Refactored code. Fully backwards compatible. Added ASCII banner art when run in the console. Added option to disable the ASCII banner art. Image Factory Utility can also be downloaded from: The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery GitHub See the full documentation available here.